Water flows through the Oligarchy Ditch on Wednesday near East Rogers Road and Sugar Mill Road. A 52-year-old Longmont man and his company, East Point LLC, have been charged with dumping 1,000 gallons of raw sewage from a hose into the ditch.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

LONGMONT -- A Longmont man and his company have been charged on suspicion of dumping 1,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Oligarchy Ditch last summer, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Environmental Protection Agency reported Wednesday.

Both East Point LLC and its owner, 52-year-old John Albert Paquette, were charged Tuesday afternoon with knowingly discharging a pollutant without a permit into U.S. waters. If convicted, the company could face up to five years of probation and a fine between $5,000 and $50,000 per day of the violation; Paquette could receive up to a year in prison and a fine between $2,500 and $25,000 per day.

Paquette could not be reached for comment.

On Wednesday afternoon, Paquette's attorney, Scott Clark, filed a notice of disposition. The notice means Paquette has reached an agreement with prosecutors and asked for an opportunity to plead guilty, said Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Colorado. A change-of-plea hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Longmont environmental services manager Cal Youngberg said Paquette had allowed someone to live at the storage facility, East Point Mini Storage, 12121 Sugar Mill Road, in a small house on the property. But though the unit had access to city water service, it didn't have a sewer tap, and according to Boulder County authorities, the septic tank wasn't big enough.

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On June 20, Youngberg said, a city maintenance crew was out cleaning up the Oligarchy when one member of the crew, Chris Kampmann, saw Paquette's truck arrive.

"He saw (Paquette's) truck pull up to the ditch and there was a hose running from the truck's interior down into the ditch," Youngberg said.

The Oligarchy, which is one of the oldest irrigation ditches in Longmont, runs from McIntosh Lake in northwest Longmont to Union Reservoir in the southeast. Both lakes are popular recreational sites and currently below half full, due to drought conditions.

Kampmann confronted Paquette and then called Youngberg. But soon it became a question of what to do next. Even though East Point receives city water service and Longmont holds majority ownership of the Oligarchy Ditch Co., the storage facility itself is outside city limits in Boulder County.

The city and county conferred with the state. The state, in turn, called in the EPA, which took charge of the investigation.

Subsequent testing found no damage had been caused to Union Reservoir by the discharge.

"But it's still illegal dumping into the waters of the state, and that's pretty serious," Youngberg said.

The charges were brought in U.S. District Court in Denver.

"This case shows that those who try to save a buck by cutting corners will be vigorously prosecuted," said Jeffrey Martinez, the special agent in charge of EPA's criminal enforcement program in Colorado, in a release.

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